You Have to Check out the Premiere Episode of ‘Mixed-Ish’

Black-ish prequel spinoff Mixed-ish has finally arrived and has brought the topic of racial identity to primetime television.

The new series premiered Tuesday night after the sixth season premiere of Black-ish. The show delves deeper into the childhood experience of Black-ish matriarch Rainbow Johnson, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, growing up biracial. The series was co-created and narrated by Ross as she reprises her role as the adult version of Rainbow Johnson.

Mixed-ish travels back to 1985 and tells the story of how Bow multiracial family acknowledges and deals with societal views on being a mixed-race family in the mid-’80s. For five seasons of Black-ish viewers have seen Bow struggle with her biracial identity and being viewed as “black enough” within her family and society.

Even though interracial marriages have been legalized within the United States since the 1967 Loving v. Virginia court case, the family still faced many struggles. The series set in the mid-80s displays how the acceptance of interracial marriage and having biracial children is still being seen as eerie.

The pilot episode shows Bow’s family living in a free-spirited commune and suddenly being forced into the suburbs by the FBI. Following the move, Bow’s parents, Paul and Alicia, begin to deal with the struggles of their new lifestyle in a traditional suburban setting, even though they try to keep up with their former lifestyle. They soon realize that they will have to make certain lifestyle changes, such as finding employment to keep their family afloat. As for Bow and her two younger siblings Santamonica and Johan, viewers gets to see the challenges they face as adjusting to their new environment. They also begin to struggle with their personal identity, after being questioned about their racial identity from classmates.

The series characters led by actors and actresses Tika Sumpter, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gary Cole, Christina Anthony, Arica Himmel, Ethan Childress, and Mykal-Michelle Harris.

Mixed-ish new episodes will continue to air every Tuesday night on ABC network at 9pm.